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Carole Anne’s Place fills winter gap for homeless women in Hamilton

Posted: March 15, 2017

By Molly Hayes

A shelter overflow pilot program will keep homeless Hamilton women warm for one more month.

Carole Anne’s place, funded by Hamilton’s Out of the Cold program and run out of a gymnasium space at the YWCA’s seniors’ centre, provides roughly a dozen overflow spots for homeless women when single women’s shelters are full.

There are no formal beds here, but there are chairs and some mats on the floor — it is not ideal, but it is safe and warm.

Seven women spent the night Monday during one of the worst storms of the season.

“We have to do this because there is no affordable housing,” Deirdre Pike, co-ordinator for the Women’s Housing Planning Collaborative, said of the program.